WHAT'LL WE DO WITH THE SURPLUS?:

Analysis: Calif. revenue recovery in 2005? (Hil Anderson, 12/12/2003, UPI)

The budget crisis in California that swept Arnold Schwarzenegger into the governor's office and led to Friday's legislative agreement on spending limits may be eased greatly if new predictions of an economic recovery in 2005 pan out.

Schwarzenegger backed away from a proposed hard cap on state spending in order to get his proposed $15 billion debt-reduction bond proposal past the Legislature, however the perceived retreat from his vow of fiscal conservativeness may become moot after the coming year.

"By 2005, the budget should be self-financing," Tom Lieser, a senior economist at the Anderson School at UCLA, told United Press International.

During the Recall numerous who should have known better suggested that the governorship wasn't worth having because times were too tough. In fact, Mr. Schwarzenegger may be the luckiest politician since Bill Clinton inherited the Reagan/Bush peace dividend.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 12, 2003 9:21 PM